#resi5

NFWMB - leon kennedy

he's always been very protective over you, keeping an arm around you in crowds, walking you home from late shifts at work, and standing up to catcallers, but after his trip to spain he comes back wanting to kill anyone who even dares to look at you the wrong way. being away for so long and having such a traumatic experience drives him closer to you. he's more loving, affectionate, and always tells you to be safe before you leave. it's the small things that let you know how much that mission changed him. he's lost so much already, the last thing he wants to lose is the love of his life.

it will come back - chris redfield

he's dark, looming, powerful, and passionate. everything about this song screams chris. he wouldn't want to get too attached, afraid that he'll lose you, but those feelings always come back. and no matter how often he tries to warn you about the dangers of his work, you always seem to get the better of him. you give him the softest of looks and he melts, crawling into bed with you. you truly make him loose his self control. everyone he works with sees the hardened, heartless version of chris, but you get the more domestic side of him. the one who cooks you breakfast and dinner, the one who has been begging you to go with him to adopt a dog, the one who cradles your face and tells you how much he loves you.

the beat of jackie and wilson, but actually like real people do - carlos oliveria

Didn’t enjoy it anywhere near as much as 4 or the newer games. I did get to play with a friend for a bit and it was better but I was solo for most of it. I ended up having to turn down the difficulty as playing with AI was frustrating and I just wanted it over and done with.

Gameplay is pretty similar to 4 of course. But very obviously designed almost entirely around co-op play so playing alone it’s just worse. No merchant, just a pretty meh shop screen between missions. As it’s Co-op in mind, you can’t pause to move items and this got very fucking annoying. I didn’t have to do so much fucking around with inventory since playing as Chris in RE1 and it very quickly gets tiresome. Especially with ammo, having to constantly juggle shit around to pick up more. Would have been better if guns just reloaded automatically when you pick it up as it’s maddening when you find ammo for an empty gun you need, but have a full inventory. Not to mention Sheva instantly wasting any healing items on slight damage so you can’t trust her to pick up any.

Game is starting to show it’s age now, whole sections of quicktime events that bring back bad memories of that era of gaming. And that one with Wesker I thought was a cutscene was so cheap. 

Next to no puzzles, aside from the mirror one and a few levers. Pretty much no scares either, not even creepy vibes. The only real tense moment was when I was being chased by that huge one hit kill bug.

There’s a few action setpieces, showing the transition from survival to action horror. The jeep section outstayed it’s welcome but the rest were ok for a change of pace.

Bosses were boring mostly. Irving was probably the best one. Excella’s was irritating so I just let the AI handle it. That fight with the uroboros patient was terrible. And so was weskers final fight, I just happened to see the prompt after knifing him for 10 mins. His second last one was alright though.

I got the lost in nightmare extra included and that was a fun throwback. The fight with wesker wasn’t great though, more of the same with quicktime prompts again.

Sheva was mostly a pain. Wasting items is the most obvious issue but also standing about and not helping was another. I had one death where she stood and didn’t move to help when I was dying. She did have her uses, I found her better when I gave her rifles as she’ll get headshots quite a lot. And she also does bossfights like the tedious one with excella flawlessly. As a character she wasn’t all that interesting and the shitty AI taints her a bit. Maybe they could do more with her in future.

Storywise I found it pretty slow moving but it got better as it went on. IDK if the Jill reveal was meant to be a twist as you could see it coming a mile off. Wesker was the best character here, his voice acting was hilarious, such a smug cunt and it finished off his story nicely. Chris was cool, ina goofy kind of way. The other villians, Irving and Excella, are one note and forgettable. Pretty standard RE stuff. Ganados but in Africa this time (IDK why it made the tribes regress to old customs though, did I miss something?) A lot of it can only be pieced together in the library section, which was a nice feature, lot’s of backstory. 

Like RE4, this is a very brown and grey game. The ruins were the most interesting visually, along with the town but otherwise it’s running through grey and beige corridors with a few tribal villages here and there.